While I like one liners, I do share my father’s taste for the old fashion shaggy dog story. Basically a one liner joke tacked on to the end of a very long story. The shaggy dog story has fallen out of fashion in our rush, rush world where the average attention span in 10 seconds, but I thought I’d change things up a bit with a few one-liners followed by a shaggy dog story (a short one, not the 20 minute version father told). and yes, the original shaggy dog story was about a shaggy dog …

In my youth, I spent a lot of time and energy in my search for the meaning of life. I often asked that question of teachers, preachers, and random adults. I learned a lot. Here’s what I’ve learned:

The best way to kill a ChatGPT AI bot is to ask it, what is the meaning of life?

I started writing a joke about life but then found it had no meaning.

Did you know that Kierkegaard thought omelettes gave meaning to life? Yes, because they’re eggs essential.

I was in Germany standing outside a famous baroque composer’s house thinking about the meaning of life. It’s called thinking outside the Bach’s.

I found it!!! The meaning of life … on page 932 in the dictionary between lie and lifeboat.

Once there was a man who really wanted to know the true meaning of life. He studied every book he could find in his American midwestern home town. He asked teachers, doctors, clergy, philosophers and all the great thinkers he could find. None could answer his question to his satisfaction.

One day the man heard of a wise guru living high the Himalayas who know the true meaning of life. The only way to reach the guru was to climb the mountain to the guru’s cave. So the man decided he needed to speak with this wiseman.

Now the man wasn’t rich so he had to sell all he owned to get enough money to make the journey. Before he went he took mountain climbing lessons, bought outdoor gear, ropes, packs, good shoes … everything he’d need to climb to the guru’s cave. But despite all the hardship, the man knew he had to ask his question of the guru.

Well, it’d didn’t go well. When he landed in India he discovered that the airline had lost half his climbing gear, which he had to replace, further depleting his few resources. Then on the train journey north to the Himalayan village where he’d start hiking out of, the train derailed and the man was badly injured. After many weeks recovering from a broken leg the man again had to buy more equipment as much of what he was traveling with was lost or damaged in the train wreck.

Finally the man arrived in the village and learned from the locals how to get to the guru’s cave. They warned him that it was a dangerous journey and that it would be best to wait a few months until there was better weather in the area. The man couldn’t wait. He was running out of money and was becoming more impatient to get his answer.

So one cloudy, wind morning the man set out to climb the mountain. It didn’t go well. A thunderstorm soaked him to the bone, a strong wind blew away his pack with all his food, his stove refused to light and then in the darkness of the storm he got lost. He wandered lost for days in the cold and wet.

Just when all seem lost and the man was near death due to hypothermia and lack of food, he saw a small light on the mountain. At last he found it, the guru’s cave. He entered and the guru gave him a blanket, food, water and let him rest by a warm fire. Then the man asked his question, “Guru what is the meaning of life?”

The guru considered the man for a moment and then said, “Life is a fountain.”

“What!?!” replied the man, “I traveled thousands of miles, was almost killed and you tell me life is a fountain!!!”

The guru looked puzzled and answered, “What? Do you mean life isn’t a fountain?”